The Appearance of Hope (An Advent Poem) Not long after John appeared in the wilderness with sweet locusts on his breath Not long after the expectant crowds churned muddy waves of confession into the Jordan Not long after he baptized Jesus in the cold river on a day overcast with love and thunder Not long after he saw that the stepped over stones would one day give birth to children of God Not long after he warned about the wrath… Read more

Reclaim the Gifts of Advent. Cultivate Empathy and Kindness as forms of Hope and Patience. Fight Back Against Current Traditions of Fear and Consumerism. Advent Calendars, traditional and digital Traditional Advent calendars, featuring small chocolates or treats like tiny Lego constructions for each day, have long been favorites for this season. There are all sorts of Advent calendars that fit this description. These can even be paired with a calendar like those listed below that emphasizes spirituality as well. The… Read more

Deut. 30:15-20 + Luke 14:25-33 + Year C + Proper 18 In today’s gospel, Jesus tells us that we must give up all our possessions in order to follow him, and in doing so, our Lord institutes the little-known eighth sacrament of the Church – the Sacrament of the Church Rummage Sale. While technically an unsanctioned and unofficial sacrament, it’s nevertheless a long-honored rite in many parishes today. At my last church, I was the priest-in-charge of this annual sacrament,… Read more

As a former high school and collegiate track athlete, I have been joyously immersed in the Olympics this week, watching and re-watching historic performances from sprinters like Usain Bolt in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes and like Wayde van Niekerek who shattered the world record in the 400-meter dash. But as I watched these races this week, I keep feeling this flutter of nervous energy and my heart pounding as the track officials would call runners to their mark at… Read more

She had lost him three times now. Sitting in the cramped upper room that smelled of stale fish and spilled wine, she looked at his friends, his friends who knew him better than her, his own mother. Who loved him better than her, too. His death sharpened her memories of him into something more vivid, more beautiful, more painful. She remembered the first time she lost her son. He was 12, and smarter than he should have been even… Read more

Jeremiah 23:23-29 + Hebrews 11:29-12:2 + Luke 12:49-56 As the father of two young sons, I can’t say that I’m thrilled with today’s gospel text, much less to have to preach on it and reflect on it all week long. Quite frankly, in ways both large and small, there’s enough division in the world right now without Jesus adding anything to it. In my family, for example, we’re frequently divided about even the tiniest of things. Like how much screen… Read more

Year C + Proper 13 + Luke 12:13-21 When I was about nine years old, I started amassing an extensive collection of comic book action figures for a kid my age. For several years, I devoted every dime of my weekly allowance to buying these figures, and eventually I collected them all — from Capt. America and Deadpool to Wolverine and Daredevil. My childhood friends and neighbors also loved these figures, but unlike them I would never bring mine over… Read more

Lectionary 10C — Luke 10:38-42 Jesus spent his entire life talking about meals, presiding over meals, and distributing them. He ate enough to be accused of being a glutton and received enormous hospitality from a variety of homes. In fact, he made receiving hospitality a central tenet of his disciples’ sending and an icon for trust in God’s abundance through others. But for all the talk of meals and all the actual eating of them, he never seems to cook… Read more

I have loved comics for as long as I can remember being able to read. What started with a mail subscription to G.I. Joe ballooned into an infatuation with The Mighty Thor (and the panoply of Norse Gods) and a growing collection of unopened Toy Biz X-Men figurines from the early 1990s. My room as an elementary and middle school student was lined with these unopened figures, hanging from clear thumbtacks in neat organized rows on my baby blue walls. I filled sketchbooks… Read more

Keep it weird. From Portland and Boulder to Austin and Asheville, “Keep It Weird” has become a rallying cry for local culture in an increasingly mass-produced landscape, a full-throated embrace funky individualism that ironically forges strong community. Of course, to really find the misfit and funky expressions of humanity, you have to move beyond the bastions of it, outside the centers of its self-conscious curators of weird. You’ve got to get beyond the glory of the self-consciously odd “How Berkeley… Read more